Major and trace element and Sr-Nd isotope signatures of the northern Lau Basin lavas: Implications for the composition and dynamics of the back-arc basin mantle

Abstract

We present new major element, trace element and Sr-Nd isotope analyses of volcanic glasses from Mangatolu Triple Junction (MTJ), Peggy Ridge (PR), Rochambeau Bank (RB), and Niuafo'ou Island (NF) within the northern Lau Basin (NLB). Lavas from MTJ range from tholeiitic basalts to basaltic andesites and andesites: such a lava series can be ascribed to fractional crystallization. Lavas from NF, RB and PR are mainly tholeiitic basalts save for two transitional basalts from RB. The lavas came from a compositionally heterogeneous mantle that exhibits compositional features similar to those of the mantle source of Indian mid-ocean basalt and bears the influence of both subduction and ocean island basalt (OIB) components. The subduction components consist mainly of fluid dehydrated from subducted oceanic crust and a minor amount of sediment melt. The geochemically enriched signature of enriched RB, PR and NF lavas comes from two OIB end-member components, most likely derived from enriched Samoan mantle plume materials leaking into NLB. The Rochambeau Rifts (RR)-RB corridor receives the greatest, although still variable, influence from the mantle source of Samoan shield magmatism whereas the outlying PR and NF regions experience a Samoan plume post-erosional type of magmatism. The relatively recent mixing of Samoan plume materials with the subduction-metasomatized Indian-type mantle may be responsible for some of the observed complex relationships between noble gases and other geochemical tracers in some NLB lavas. Copyright 2011 by the American Geophysical Union.